NASA's Lunar
Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE)
spacecraft — which is slated to blast off from the agency's
Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia today at 11:27 p.m. EDT (0327
GMT Sept. 7) — aims primarily to study the moon's wispy
atmosphere. But it also totes laser gear to see how well two-way
communications can go between a moon-bound spacecraft and the
Earth.

"We can even envision such a laser-based system enabling a
robotic mission to an asteroid," Don Cornwell, manager of
LADEE's lunar
laser communication demonstration at NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a
statement. "It could have 3D, high-definition video signals
transmitted to Earth providing essentially ‘telepresence’ to a
human controller on the ground," Cornwell added.

You can watch
the LADEE launch live on SPACE.com beginning at 9:30
p.m. EDT (0130 GMT), courtesy of NASA TV. The late-night moon
shot will be the first lunar mission ever launched from Virginia
and it may be visible, weather permitting, to millions of
observers along the U.S. East Coast between Maine and North
Carolina. To find out if you live in the viewing area, check out
SPACE.com's
LADEE rocket launch visibility maps gallery.

More than the Mona Lisa

Since NASA launched its first satellite in 1958, the agency has
primarily used radio-frequency communication to keep in touch
with its spacecraft. Astronauts used the frequency during the
moon landings and the space shuttle program. Voyager, Cassini and
other distant robotic spacecraft beamed information back to Earth
by radio as well.

The channel, however, only has so much bandwidth. Increases in
computer capabilities mean scientists and the public are getting
more used to space videos and stills. Also, radio-frequency
bandwidth is just about at the limit, NASA said, even as demand
soars.

Laser communication, however, offers far more bandwidth,
potentially giving the agency better image resolution and the
ability to construct 3D videos based on data its spacecraft
collect.

LADEE isn't the first laser communicator to leave Earth. In early
2013, NASA scientists used a laser to send
a picture of the Mona Lisa — Leonardo da Vinci's most
famous painting — to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It was the
first time anyone communicated by laser at such a long distance,
240,000 miles (384,400 kilometers) away.

LADEE's short-duration demonstrator, however, is the first
dedicated system to send communications to and from Earth using a
laser instead of radio. It can send six times more data using 25
percent less power than an equivalent high-end radio-frequency
system, NASA officials said. Plus, laser communications are not
as likely to be jammed.

Overcoming cloud interference

The experiment is supposed to send hundreds of millions of bits
of data per second from the moon to the Earth — the rough
equivalent of 100 high-definition channels transmitted at the
same time. The laser demonstrator also is designed to receive
tens of millions of bits per second from Earth.

A ground terminal at NASA's White Sands Complex in New Mexico
will be the primary avenue for receiving and transmitting
information. As backup, a location at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in California can receive data, and two-way
communication is possible with a European Space Agency terminal
in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa.

"Having several sites gives us alternatives, which greatly
reduces the possibility of interference from clouds," Cornwell
said.

Editor's note: Weather permitting,
tonight's LADEE launch should be visible from large stretches of
the U.S. East Coast. If you take an amazing photo of the LADEE
launch or any other night sky view that you'd like to share for a
possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your
name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.